Performance appraisal of coaches: Acomparative study

Abstract

Within the sport environment, the performance appraisal of coaches continues to be an issue. The performance appraisal of coaches is critical to sport organizations since major decisions like rewarding or terminating coaches is based on it. The purpose of this study was to examine whether any differences exist with regard to the importance attached to the
facets identified by MacLean and Chelladurai (1995) between South African sport coaches and administrators and Canadian sport coaches and
administrators. A secondary purpose was to examine whether there were any differences between coaches and administrators overall. The third purpose was to examine whether there was any interaction between country and administrators or coaches in terms of the predetermined facets. Data was collected using the Scale of Coaching Performance (SCP) and
demographics developed by MacLean and Chelladurai (1995). A purposive sample of 300 sport coaches and 150 administrators from sport
organizations in South Africa comprised the participants in this study while 532 coaches and 87 administrators formed the Canadian sample for the
study. A reliability test was conducted on six pre-determined facets of performance appraisal. A multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA) was
conducted to examine differences in the importance attached to the various facets by coaches and administrators in the different countries. The results indicated that overall there were significant differences with regard to team products, personal products, indirect task behaviours and public relations behaviours. The study found that common ground seems to exist between the two countries regarding the appraisal of coaches. It also found that the views of administrators and coaches regarding the appraisal
of coaches do not always coincide.